User:The Iconoclast



Jonathan M. Sweet, born  September 13,  1975, in  Chicago, is an  American horror author. He credits as his influences  Stephen King,  Gelett Burgess, and  Roger Hargreaves<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">, as well as <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> The Three Stooges<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> Tex Avery<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> He-Man<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">, and the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> Whammy<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">.

<p style="border-style:initial;border-color:initial;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">His acerbic and often darkly comedic writing has been likened to that of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> Robert Bloch<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> Joe Lansdale<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Most of his stories are set in small Southern towns and college campuses. Many are heavily semi-autobiographical and deal with loss, such as getting fired from a job, the death of a family member, or dealing with a bad breakup. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Sweet currently lives in the Missouri Bootheel<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;"> with his family, the pastoral setting which inspires his work<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Sweet's screen name comes from a Pinky and the Brain<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> short, "Puppet Rulers", in which <span style="line-height:21px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Brain, posing as a kiddie-show host, called himself, "The Iconoclast, an unconventional eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drummer".

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Sweet has authored several books, including Postcards of the Hanging and Tiresias, a number of short stories, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">acts as editor, writer and artist of The Belch Dimension Comics, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;"> distributed monthly. He has recently released his first trade paperback compiling some of his cartoons.